News stories from Monday May 27, 1974
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- There have been strong indications recently that the long friendship between President Nixon and Vice President Ford -- they have been personal and political friends for 25 years -- has begun to fray. Neither will say publicly that there is a strain, but it is now a matter of public record that they are at odds over the refusal by the White House to give additional tape recordings and other material to the impeachment inquiry. [New York Times]
- In a Memorial Day radio address, President Nixon coupled an appeal for a strong military force with praise for two Southern Democrats in Congress. It was the kind of speech that would appeal to the conservative bloc in Congress. He singled out for praise Representative Edward Hebert of Louisiana, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and Senator John Stennis of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. [New York Times]
- President Nixon, Vice President Ford and Senate and House leaders have all agreed in recent weeks that Congress should enact a national health insurance program this year. Their rhetoric has matched the magnitude of the amounts of money that might be contained in such a measure, perhaps as much as $50 billion a year. But the two key congressional committees dealing with the issue of the health insurance plan have failed to keep up with the accelerated demands for action. [New York Times]
- Under a special reapportionment bill expected to be approved at a special session of the New York state legislature, the districts of Representative John Rooney, dean of the New York congressional delegation, and State Senator Carol Bellamy would be remapped. The new boundaries, confined to Brooklyn and Manhattan, were ordered by the Justice Department under the Voting Rights Act and are meant to increase black and Puerto Rican representation in Congress and in the legislature. [New York Times]
- Every pew and even the aisles of the Episcopal Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine were filled by a crowd of 10,000 persons who came to attend the funeral service of Duke Ellington. And 2,500 others followed the service by loudspeakers on Amsterdam Avenue in front of the cathedral. The traditional Episcopal service was combined with musical selections played and sung by old friends of Mr. Ellington. [New York Times]
- Secretary of State Kissinger said that although he had further narrowed the differences between Syria and Israel in round-the-clock talks in Damascus, he had decided to return home on Wednesday even without a troop separation agreement. He insisted, while speaking to reporters who had accompanied him from Damascus to Tel Aviv, that it was premature to say that his mediation efforts had failed. "We will not know until tomorrow what the final outcome will be," he said tonight. The Israeli cabinet will meet tomorrow morning to discuss possible new steps. The Secretary will hold discussions with Israeli leaders after the meeting. [New York Times]
- Jacques Chirac, a 41-year-old Gaullist, was named Premier of France by the new President, Valery Giscard d'Estaing. Mr. Chirac was known for his loyalty to the late president Georges Pompidou, whose Minister of the Interior he was, and who had brought him into politics. Mr. Chirac played a crucial role in President Giscard d'Estaing's election victory by helping to outmaneuver Jacques Chaban-Delmas, the Gaullist candidate.
Mr. Giscard d'Estaing was inaugurated at the Elysee Palace in Paris as the third popularly-elected President of France, the 20th in her history and the youngest in this century. He is 48 years old. He promised in a short speech to heed "the immense wave of sound" demanding change.
[New York Times] - India's railway strike ended 20 days after it was started by the railwaymen's union, whose members bitterly announced the strike's end at a packed Socialist party headquarters in New Delhi. The union conceded that the government had crushed the strike through mass arrests of rail leaders. The collapse of the strike was regarded as a major triumph for Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. [New York Times]
- Strategic gasoline stations and oil depots in Northern Ireland were guarded by British soldiers to assure fuel for essential services as the general strike called by Protestant extremists threatened to bring a complete halt in food supplies, medical services and electric power. The takeover by the troops was ordered by Merlyn Rees, the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. [New York Times]